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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------{ June 08, 2007 }
Patronales
Right now in Juncalito we are in the midst of Patronales, which is a festival for the patron saint of the town and lasts 9 days. Our patron saint in St. Antonio. During Patronales they have mass every day and then at night there are parties and musicians come. They also have a queen and court that are elected from Juncalito and the surrounding communities. It started Monday night with the coronation of the queen- I missed that because I was in Santiago. Tuesday night Andy Gutierrez, a merenguero, came and played and it was really good. On Wednesday some kids danced reggaeton on stage (I'm gonig to try and put a video up on my photo site of this 5 year old girl dancing it) and there were 2 other dancing contests. Last night Chiqui Rodriguez, another merenguero, played. A ton of people come from out of town for it and usually afterwards people go and dance in the bar. I went last night for a little bit. Supposedly the best days haven't happened yet because more people come for the weekend and then for the last few days. Adeline, another volunteer, is going to come tomorrow to stay for the night.
I had a meeting with UNACAFEN (an organization that works with producer groups in the northern region) a week ago from yesterday and in addition to working with a group in Juncalito comprised of spouses of our socios, I am going to start having meetings there every 2 weeks to help work on a list and contacts with international coffee buyers. I hope it works out well, UNACAFEN hasn't been the most reliable organization but it has good potential.
There isn't a lot else going on. Aside from last Monday, I haven't left Juncalito since my last post and I've just been working here. It poured for part of the day almost every day in May. I like to leave at least a few windows open (the windows are just slats, no glass) to have some light coming in in case the power is off, but one day the wind kept changing directions and rain was coming in on all sides so I had to shut everything up. Despite that it keeps me from getting much done (or maybe because of it?), I really enjoy the rainstorms. Now that it's June they seem to have cleared up. It hasn't rained all week. It seems a little strange that just at the end of the month it pretty much stopped, but it's been sunny and warm during the day.
Posted by katie on June 8, 2007 06:57 PM | Permalink
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Comments so far:
OMG!! I can't believe your in Juncalito!! You definetely don't know who I am and I really hope that you can get back to me...My parents are from that side of the DR and it is amazing that the Peace Corps actually send people over. Many thanks for all your volunteer works as you hve seen it is needed and overdue, as a third world country the people are disorganized because they have no idea where to start. Well if you take the public bus often into Juncalito you have certainly seen my house. I just built a white and red house for my mom in this part called 'la bija'(annato seed, jaja)its right after 'la sejita'(the eybrows, weird huh)and you have to past throught it before getting to Juncalito. I am going for the whole summer this year and I don't know anyone my age and I am bringing a friend who has never been in the DR so if you pass by my house just stop by and have some cafe with me!! I'll probably have some real US pepsi or some other American food as my mom loooves to pack boxes of food for our stay and for the poor. Please write back!
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Posted by:
Rosa |
June 20, 2007 01:46 PM
Hi, I'm the pc vol that was in Juncalito previously. Let me know if you want any info that I might have, insights (like Leo, Unacafen) etc. I'm so glad you're there! PLEASE send my hellos to everybody in town.
Gigi
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Posted by:
Gigi |
May 14, 2008 06:44 PM
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